The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
